Ordinary Human Language

by Brian Crane

Making Hypertext

My big project this summer is to create a non-fiction hypertext. I have a subject. I have the material. I even have some initial ideas about form.

Obviously I’ll make the thing in Eastgate’s Tinderbox. I can’t imagine organizing multiple paths through my materials–some narrative, some analytic, some argumentative–without its maps, outlines, aliases, and everything else.

But I also have a worry: HTML is fundamental to Tinderbox and HTML export is carefully explained in the manual, but I’m intimidated. Once I’ve created the hypertext I will I be able to get it online?

“You’ll figure it out.”

That’s what I’m telling myself: “Make it now, and when it’s time, you’ll figure it out.” But it’s unsettling.

More news to come…

Posted June 7, 2014